Communism, in anything other than a group of a few extremely like-minded people, doesn't work. And it's immoral.

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Geely Motors?

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So, then, being a student and getting a government loan to go to college is also a completely communist idea, right?

What happened at GM is the same concept, only on a much larger scale. Granted, I, too, have some concern over the precedent that this is setting. I, too, agree that this has the potential to be a slippery slope. But to sit back from your own "post Eastern-Bloc" home and call us communist is a little short-sighted.

In the end, the theoretical role of any government, regardless of its classification, is to look after the interests of the people that it governs. In the US, we had two options: help bail out the industry, or let an industry that is directly responsible for one in ten jobs in our nation fail, leaving massive unemployment.

One could argue that that is what should have happened, and one would be an abject moron. It is very easy to say that that is what should have happened, that we should have just dealt with 10% unemployment, when you aren't affected by it.

One could also argue that under liquidation, GM and Chrysler's pieces would have been bought up other, smaller companies that would have done a better job of running things. Once again, one would be an abject moron, as they have no practical basis for the assumption that other people would have made better management decisions, just as those in favor of the bailout have no practical basis for the assertion that the new management team will do any better of a job than the old one.

We had two choices. Both of them were bad. We chose what we deemed to be the lesser of the two evils (if only slightly). It's done and over. The decision has been made. The decision has been enacted. It's in the past now, as are GM and Chrysler's fuck-ups.

We can either bitch and moan about it, or we can set down a solid plan to get them the hell out of government debt as soon as possible.

I'll take the latter choice.

@mechimike:

Yeah, well, when the Russians actually make a move towards actual democracy, they can talk. They may not live in a state society anymore, but make no mistake, they are far from being in a position where they can criticize us for a lack of democracy.

Also, morality is subjective, and, in the end has nothing to do with anything. Communism is certainly a bad thing, but that has nothing to do with morality per se.

@Jim Topoleski:

Alright, the apparently rare ability to tell the difference between communism and socialism earns you a heart-click.

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Therefore, the mock-up is a little bit misguided.

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